Are You Able to Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Forged our Modern Globe
One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, that converted timber into planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted the circular motion into vertical motion to power the saw. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine them in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward stroke and moving with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns circular movement to vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.
